Chapter 101: Sorry...
Inside his consciousness space, Mark saw cracks continuously appearing on his spiritual root. The situation was so bad that if this weren’t a supreme-grade spiritual root, it would have shattered long ago.
No matter how high-grade a spiritual root was, it was still affected by the host’s physical and mental strength. Because Mark was too weak, even his supreme-grade spiritual root was easily damaged like this.
If the one carrying out this reckless act was White, at most only a few minor cracks would appear. Of course, White wouldn’t do something like this because the explosive energy from a spiritual herb didn’t mean much to her.
Even though Brann’s sincere words had buffed his spirit, compared to the berserk energy wreaking havoc inside Mark’s body, it was still completely outmatched.
"Damn it..."
Even though it was only inside his consciousness space, Mark felt like he was being torn apart. For some reason, this terrifying pain was appearing here.
"Spiritual root, hold on a little longer... I will definitely control this berserk energy."
Even though he didn’t know whether these words of reassurance would have any effect on his spiritual root, Mark still said them.
Mark tried his best to stay calm, but in the end he still couldn’t do it. The moment he tried, the image of everyone desperately fighting appeared in his mind again. He had even imagined everyone’s deaths.
"Calm down... calm down for me! Calm down for me!"
Mark kept his eyes closed and continuously shouted. His actions were clearly the complete opposite of being calm.
Logically speaking, what he was doing was the best gamble he could make. But wouldn’t the final result be Mark’s death?
The fear of death had always existed in his mind, never truly disappearing. Just now, he was able to carry out such a reckless act only because eating the spiritual herb took an extremely short moment, but calming himself down was much harder.
Mark’s mind was now trapped between two fears. First, he was afraid of dying, and second, he was afraid of his teammates dying.
"Why can’t I? Why..."
Mark desperately raised his head, but there was nothing above him to look at in his consciousness space to calm himself down either.
There wasn’t much time left for Mark. The condition of his spiritual root was getting worse and worse, as if it was about to shatter. Streams of chaotic energy from the spiritual herb continuously moved around, as if they wanted to tear Mark’s body apart to escape.
"Don’t think about random things anymore. Just think about one thing. What exactly do you want to do?"
Nexus’s voice rang out in Mark’s mind, causing him to freeze for a few seconds. He didn’t say anything and just quietly thought.
"I am Mark, a trash F-rank. They are experienced hunters who are risking their lives fighting but are still trying to protect me. I want to... save them!"
It was already clear what he wanted to do, but Mark knew this still wasn’t enough. His master hadn’t spoken up just because she wanted Mark to give such a simple answer.
"I understand... My life actually isn’t as important as I thought. Trading the life of a piece of trash for a chance for someone else to live is absolutely worth it. If my life is just trash, then what’s so scary about losing trash? This is clearly a good thing."
Mark muttered to himself, and the more he thought about it, the more he understood what Nexus wanted him to learn.
The way to face death while still remaining calm was to always regard your own life as trash or something unimportant.
If Mark’s life was something unimportant to begin with, then why be afraid of losing it? Just like when a pile of trash suddenly disappears from the trash can, we would be happy because we didn’t have to go through the trouble of taking the trash out.
The body’s instincts now had to give way before Mark’s absolute rationality. This time, he didn’t gain enlightenment.
It wasn’t that Mark deliberately chose not to reach enlightenment. Instead, his sealed consciousness deliberately didn’t awaken because Mark himself was still not fully developed.
"Stop running around inside my body."
Mark muttered and then used his willpower and calmness to endure the pain and guide the streams of energy that were wreaking havoc around him to move in a more stable order.
Of course, it was only more stable because his body couldn’t control such a huge amount of energy for much longer.
At the same time, everything he had once read in the spear manual that Nexus had given him appeared again.
The theories that he hadn’t understood before suddenly became strangely easy to understand. Mark didn’t fully understand what had actually happened, but he knew he needed it right then.
Even though he understood them, Mark still couldn’t use the technique for now. He needed more time to use a skill suitable for his current body’s condition.
Feeling that the situation was relatively under control, Mark slowly opened his eyes. He also didn’t know how long he had been stuck in his consciousness space, so he wanted to see how everyone was doing.
The moment he opened his eyes, Brann’s huge figure was standing in front of him. Brann’s metallic body was now covered in wounds, blood flowing and soaking his entire body.
"Brann..."
Before Mark could hurriedly speak, the cold blade of the skeleton knight swung down and directly split Brann’s body in two.
Hot fresh blood splattered all over Mark’s face, shocking him so badly that his eyes widened. His whole body trembled, and his emotions were rapidly getting out of control, causing the berserk energy inside his body to once again violently wreak havoc on his body.
"Sorry..."
Brann’s weak voice rang out. His huge body, split into two halves, helplessly fell to the ground.
With Brann no longer blocking his view, the incomplete corpses of his other teammates were revealed before Mark’s eyes.
Judging from the condition of their bodies and the destruction of the surrounding environment, it was obvious that there had been a fierce battle that had lasted for a very long time.
"Nooooo!"
Mark threw his head back and screamed toward the sky. The cracks on his body quickly widened, causing blood to flow out from everywhere. Fresh red blood flowed from his eye sockets, ears, and even his mouth, causing his mournful scream to become interrupted as blood fell into his throat.
Mark’s mind being on the verge of collapse caused the energy inside his body to lose control. If this continued, even with his spiritual root helping him, Mark would explode in less than a minute.